


Time Pair Doxxed

by RockSunner



Series: Smart Adversaries AU [16]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Action/Adventure, Akumatized Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Chat Noir Reveal, Episode: s01 Chronogirl | Timebreaker, Gen, Grieving, Identity Reveal, Ladybug Reveal, Renounced Tikki, Time Travel, deal with the enemy, duplicates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-10 12:51:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14737289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RockSunner/pseuds/RockSunner
Summary: What if Hawk Moth talked to the Timebreaker who came back before he created another one?





	1. Chapter 1

There was a flash of light and Timebreaker appeared on the landing of the stair overlooking the Trocadéro. Ladybug was pulled along with her. As Timebreaker stopped, Ladybug's momentum sent her tumbling to the ground.

"Whoa, w-what just happened?" asked Ladybug.

She got up and looked below. She saw that Alix had just completed her first lap in the race with Kim. The kids from her class were cheering her on, including Marinette (who was holding one side of a banner).

"Oh wow, we've gone back in time, haven't we?" said Ladybug.

Chloé grabbed Alix's watch from Adrien. "Whatcha got there?"

"Careful, it's Alix's!" sad Adrien.

"What is this?" Chloé asked. "Some super old case or something? If it's Alix's, it's probably worthless."

"Give it back to Adrien, Chloé," said the Marinette who was down there with them.

"My watch!" shouted Timebreaker.

"Chloé! Put the watch down!" called Ladybug.

Timebreaker launched herself into the air, going after Chloé, who looked up and dropped the watch out of fear. It broke.

"Noooo!" shouted Timebreaker.

Alix heard her and saw what happened to her watch. She stopped skating.

"Ladybug, this time it's your fault! I need more energy. I gotta go further back in time!" said Timebreaker.

Alix skated up to look at her broken watch on the ground. "Ladybug. It's all Ladybug's fault!"

Alix knelt down by the watch and began to cry.

"Everyone, get our of here! Don't let her touch you!" called Ladybug from above, warning about Timebreaker.

The crowd scattered.

* * *

In his lair, Hawk Moth sensed the emotions of Alix, and the nearly identical emotions of an akuma victim he had not created. She was exactly like one that he intended to create, with time-travel powers. She had to be from the future.

"Could this be possible? Do I see double vision in my future? Or should I say double villain?" said Hawk Moth to himself.

Hawk Moth decided to first take advantage of knowledge from the future. He made a mental link to Timebreaker.

"Timebreaker of the future, I could create a second Timebreaker to help you. Before I do, tell me how things went the first time."

"Things are going terrible," said Timebreaker aloud. "My watch got broken again this time around. I wanna go back further in time."

"But what about your mission for me?" asked Hawk Moth. "Did you get Chat Noir's ring and Ladybug's earrings? Do you have them with you, and can you bring them to me or put them somewhere I can retrieve them?"

"Nah. I faded out Chat Noir in the future and I didn't get his ring. But Ladybug is here. She followed me in time."

"What? I told you to get his ring and her earrings, didn't I?"

"How am I supposed to do that? I can't touch anyone without stealing their time energy. The only way I could do it without fading Chat Noir would be to touch just the ring itself and not his hand. Impossible when he's fighting me."

"What about once you've touched him and he started to fade?"

"Ladybug wouldn't let me get anything off of him before he faded out. When I left there I told future Hawk Moth I had a sick plan."

"What is the plan?"

"This time I'm gonna fade out both Ladybug and Chat Noir and go back even further in time. I'll save my watch."

"And you'll get me the Miraculouses?"

"Well... I dunno. Maybe. Like the other Hawk Moth, you may be left behind on a timeline with no Miraculouses. But I'll have my watch."

"Your sick plan makes me sick. You are useless to me. I will remove your power and I won't create a second copy."

"But what about my watch?"

"Forget it."

* * *

The purple butterfly came out of one of Timebreaker's inline skates, and in a cloud of magic the villain from the future reverted to a copy of Alix.

Future Ladybug, who had just sent her counterpart running home to take care of Mrs. Chamack's cake, looked on in puzzlement. Where had Timebreaker gone? There were two copies of Alix instead.

Ladybug swung down and touched the Alix from the future. "Are you all right?"

"No," said Alix. "I messed up with Hawk Moth and now I'll never get my watch back."

"You remember everything that happened?" asked Ladybug.

"Yeah. I hate what I did as Timebreaker. I killed people in that timeline. Coming here created a new branch where that won't happen, which is good."

"How can we get back to our own timeline?" asked Ladybug.

"We can never go back. We're stuck here as time doubles."

"We'll face that later. Come on, let's follow that akuma butterfly. If Hawk Moth pulled it from you it may go back to him."

"Can you do a cure if you catch it?" asked Alix. "Will it send us back?"

"I don't know. Usually I have to break the akumatized object first, and release the butterfly. Now there's no object."

Ladybug held out an arm. Carrying Alix, she swung after the butterfly.

"If the cure doesn't work, I have another plan. I hate to do it, but we could make a deal with Hawk Moth to get us back home."


	2. Chapter 2

"What?" exclaimed Alix. "You can't make a deal with Hawk Moth. He's evil – he turned me into a killer!"

"I know, he can't be trusted half as far as I can throw him. Let's try the cure solution first. We can talk about other ways if it fails," said Ladybug.

They followed until they saw the black butterfly go over the wall of the Agreste mansion. It headed for a circular window in the attic - a window that was concealed most of the time by metal shutters that worked like an iris for a camera. Ladybug set Alix down and went into action.

"Lucky Charm!" called Ladybug. She got a glass jar with a polka-dotted lid. She swung up and caught the butterfly in the jar before it could go in the window, and carried it back to Alix. They moved about a block south of the mansion to be out of range of any spy cameras or weapons.

Ladybug waited a moment to see if the akuma was stopped, but it simply phased through the glass. Since that didn't do anything, Ladybug went into her akuma cleansing ritual with the yo-yo.

"No more evil-doing for you, little akuma... Gotcha!... Bye-bye little butterfly."

Ladybug threw the jar into the air. It didn't explode into a world-healing wave of ladybugs. She caught it again.

"I was afraid of that. Now I'll tell you about the other plan..." said Ladybug.

"Why do we need a plan? We could live in this time line. It's like ours and nobody's been killed," said Alix.

"The trouble isn't who is dead, but that there are two extra people alive – us," said Ladybug. "We're homeless nobodies. Our families already have one of us."

"Yeah, but maybe... would they take us in?" asked Alix.

"Maybe you could be like a twin sister. I can't do that. People have seen a copy of Ladybug, not a copy of my secret identity. To show my face in her form would be to publicly doxx her identity."

"I get it... but what can you do?"

"I could live on the streets as a full-time second Ladybug, steal food, hide when I have to transform... or make a deal."

"You could start new life with a new identity if you left Paris."

"That's not easy. There's one other thing... it matters to me a lot."

"What?"

"Unfinished business. The world we left behind is a sad one. So many of our classmates are dead: Kim, Rose, Myléne, Alya, Chloé, and Sabrina. The survivors are Adrien, Juleka, Max, Nino, Nathaniel, and Ivan. Chat Noir was killed and Ladybug was taken away by Timebreaker."

"And Marinette. I remember trying to get her, but she threw the banner over me and got away."

"She didn't get away. She's me."

"Marinette? You're Ladybug?"

"I had to tell you that to explain, but please keep it a secret if we get back."

"I will."

"I'll be presumed killed by Timebreaker. I was supposed to stay home while my parents went out to lunch for their twentieth wedding anniversary. Nadja Chamack had ordered a huge party cake in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. I thought I had time to bring the banner to the race and cheer you on - I didn't because Ms. Chamack came early. My parents called me at the race. I told them I was upstairs in my bedroom listening to music and I would go down and help Ms. Chamack right away. My last words to my parents were a lie."

"Bummer."

"Yeah. I changed to Ladybug and disappeared with you. Ms. Chamack will get her cake very late, after my parents are forced to leave their anniversary lunch. I would have been in trouble for that, except that... to them I'm dead. I can't leave them like that, with their last memory of me lying, sneaking out, and getting killed by an akuma."

"That's bad. One consolation - the Hawk Moth who created Timebreaker got nothing," said Alix.

"Both Miraculous that he wanted are gone. He'll have to quit terrorizing Paris," said Ladybug.

"Maybe. We don't know for sure what he wants," said Alix

"I need to get back to that world. Now here's my plan..."

* * *

Ladybug swung herself into Hawk Moth's lair through the open pane in the circular window.

"I have a deal for you, Hawk Moth. You get one free miraculous which I will give to you in exchange for the power to return to my own time line and to take Alix with me. My miraculous is a spare. Nobody will even know you have it, because the original Ladybug still has hers."

"Why shouldn't I just kill you and take it?" asked Hawk Moth.

"There are a lot of ways you could double cross me, and I don't trust you. But here's the thing. Alex is waiting for me. She knows who you are and she is ready to call the police. So if you attack me for my Miraculous I'll fight hard and it will take you some time. If you try to akumatize me to kill her, I'll fight that too, and I have pretty strong will power. Meanwhile Alex will make her call. I have nothing to lose; I can't live in this world. I belong in another time line, an alternate future."

"I could find out who you are."

"When you akumatize me you may find out who I really am. But you'll already have a Ladybug Miraculous. I don't know who Chat Noir is, so you won't get that out of me or my double."

"You would still be akumatized on arrival," said Hawk Moth.

"I know. I'll take my chances that the Hawk Moth there can pull my power like you did for Timebreaker. Even if my parents just get some closure that will be good enough for me. Alix for sure will get back to her family and be happy."

"You are taking a huge risk."

"I can't stay here. I'm a spare, a double. I'm a living, walking opportunity for my duplicate to have her identity doxxed. I can't go out in public without being Ladybug because there would be two of us in her secret identity."

"I accept your deal," said Hawk Moth. "Give me your miraculous and I will make you Sidestepper, with the power to move between alternate time liines. You realize that doing this will probably cause another split, so that in one world you return and in one world you don't."

"That's still one world with happier parents."

"Give me your ring now."

"I will take off the ring and renounce Tikki only when I'm outside of your wall, just in case. I will drop it where you can easily find it. I don't want to be powerless under your security devices. Also I don't want to show my face, just in can you can't read it from my mind."

"What a cautious one you are."

"I'm going now. I have plenty of negative emotions, don't I? I have a strong desire to get home, and grief for the people who died in my world."

"Yes you do."

* * *

Ladybug shot out her yo-you and got out through the window. She went back to Alix.

"The deal is on," she said.

Ladybug took off one earring.

"Marinette please don't do this," said Tikki.

"I'm sorry Tiki, I have to renounce you."

Tikki was sucked inside the left earring.

"Alix, you have the jar with the chemicals we put in it, and the piece of paper with my confession to my parents about the cake. We're ready."

The Akuma butterfly came, and Marinette got it to absorb into the confession paper.

Marinette became Sidestepper. She was covered head-to-toe in vertical black and red stripes. The stripes over each eye were black and between them and over her nose was a red stripe. She placed the earrings on a nearby bench to keep her end of the bargain.

"Here I come Alex," said Sidestepper. She grabbed Alix's hand roughly. "Here we go!"

In an instant they were gone with a snap and a flash of light.


	3. Chapter 3

On arrival in the new dimension, Alix acted fast. She grabbed the akumatized paper from Sidestepper, tore it in half, put the pieces into the jar, and sealed the lid.

Sidestepper reverted to a stunned Marinette in a burst of magic purple energy.

The akuma butterfly emerged from the paper... and died from the killing jar chemicals. The purple-black energy disappeared, leaving a dead white butterfly at the bottom of the jar.

Alix shook Marinette gently. "Look, Marinette, it worked! I don't think the akuma is gonna be able to reproduce. We killed its host."

Marinette roused from her trance. "Now we need to try the healing charm here."

Marinette took the jar and threw it into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

There was a small burst of magic ladybugs, and the restored confession note floated down into Marinette's hand.

"I guess this is the only damage we fixed," said Marinette sadly.

"Yeah," said Alix.

A moment later, a leather-clad figure landed beside them. "I saw ladybugs in the air from a healing charm. Did you see Ladybug?"

"C-chat Noir?" asked Marinette. "It can't be – you're dead!"

"I was about to say the same thing about you," said Chat Noir. "Did the Miraculous Ladybug charm bring you back to life? What about all the others?"

"We must have landed in a different time line," said Alix. "Who did Timebreaker kill?"

"You don't remember now that you're freed from the akuma, Alix" said Chat. "Timebreaker got Kim first. Then she chased down Marinette. Soon after she got Rose, Myléne, Alya, Ivan, Chloé, and Sabrina. By that time I was on the scene. I challenged her, but Timebreaker said she had enough energy to go back in time. She skated away faster than I could catch up with her, and she vanished. Ladybug never showed up... until just now, and I missed her."

"Ladybug wasn't here," said Marinette. "That was me, using a Lucky Charm object that I created while I was still Ladybug."

"I don't understand... are you telling me you're Ladybug?" asked Chat.

"I was. I'm from a different time line," said Marinette. "In my world I got away from Timebreaker when she chased me down – I threw my banner over her. Then I hid and transformed. Almost all the same people were killed except that I saved Ivan. Chat Noir, you died by taking an attack meant for me. When Timebreaker skated away to go back in time, I lassoed her with my yo-yo and I was pulled with her back in time, to where the race was only half over and the watch wasn't broken yet."

"How did you get back here?" asked Chat Noir.

"The Hawk Moth back there got mad at Alix and took away her power for failing to get our Miraculouses. I realized we were stuck as doubles in that time line. There were two of Alix and two of me. So I made a deal with Hawk Moth for a superpower that would take us back to our own time line. I guess he didn't make the power accurate, probably on purpose. We ended up here instead."

"What? You made a deal with Hawk Moth? What did you give him?" asked Chat.

"I left him my Miraculous," said Marinette.

"I can't believe you did that!" said Chat.

"It will work out. Alix tipped off the other me," said Marinette.

"I called the other Marinette," said Alix. "I told her who Hawk Moth was, and that if she acted fast she could catch him, or someone he sends, trying to pick up the extra Miraculous. She's still Ladybug, and they still have a Chat Noir. They can take it from there."

"If you know who Hawk Moth is in that world, it should be the same here," said Chat Noir. "I can catch him. Who is he?"

"Gabriel Agreste," said Marinette.

Chat Noir gasped and looked horrified.

"You know him?" asked Marinette. "He's a famous fashion designer. I used to look up to him."

"I know him," said Chat Noir grimly. "He'll be stopped, whatever the cost."

"This time line is going to work out well for me and Alix," said Marinette. "Alix can replace the Timebreaker Alix who left. I lost Chat Noir there, and you're here. You lost Ladybug, and I'm here."

"You're just going to step into a dead girl's shoes?" asked Chat Noir.

"What choice do I have?" asked Marinette.

"What are you going to tell her parents?" asked Chat.

"That reports of my death were greatly exaggerated?" said Marinette. "I'll still be punished for deserting my post at the bakery to go to a race, but they'll be happy I wasn't killed in the akuma attack."

"It's not right," said Chat. "You'll be living a lie."

"I'm her," said Marinette. "Same face, same personality, everything."

"Except she's dead and you're not," said Chat.

"That's the closest place to home I'm going to find," said Marinette.

"You need to tell them the truth," said Chat Noir. "If you don't, I will. I saw her die."

"You were there that soon? I didn't see you," said Marinette.

"I was there at the race. You might as well know, and Alix, too. I'm Adrien."

"Then... your father..."

"Yes."

"I'm sorry."

"Not your fault. I had to find out sooner or later."

"There may be a chance for us... You liked Ladybug as Chat Noir. I liked Adrien as Marinette."

"Let's give ourselves a chance to grieve for the people we lost before we look for replacements."

"Fair enough. I'm going to my... to the other Marinette's parents now. I'll tell them the truth."

"I'm going to my dad," said Alix. "I'm not going to tell him the truth... don't try to make me. You can't prove I'm not who I say. I'm back after being cured from the akuma. That's it."

* * *

"So... that's the whole story," said Marinette to Tom and Sabine. "I'm exactly the same as your daughter. I sneaked around as Ladybug. I thought I could make the race and still get back for Ms. Chamack. I made the same bad decisions, told my parents the same lies, and hurt them. It just turned out differently for me. I want to make up for my mistakes with them by being a better Marinette for you. Is there any chance I can stay here?"

"This is really hard," said Sabine. "I... can't call you the same name. Can we just say 'Mari' for short?"

"If you're going to take her place, you need to take her punishment," said Tom. "You're grounded for a month, Mari."

"Oh yes! Thank you! Thank you so much!" said Mari.

The End


End file.
